Oil + sodium hydroxide + water = soap + glycerin (a soap with glycerin simply). However, there are many different types of soaps selling in market. Some would say they are “handmade”. How to define?
I think almost everyone who uses natural handmade soap at the first time could feel completely different texture and feeling comparing to commercial soaps / cleansers / detergents in market, including me. I have used natural handmade soap for some time already. I am so delighted to see how big improvement of my skin. Skin problem is not always a bothering issue to me now. I hope for those who still suffer from skin problem can read below article and understand why natural handmade soap is so uniquely different.
Natural handmade soap:
The more natural a soap is, the more difficult to make. All made by hand throughout all the processes. Each time can make very limited pieces, thus output is not much and the cost of it is relatively higher than general soaps in market. Natural handmade soap does not have much fragrance, its colour would change with time and is a bit soft. The surface of soap is usually moist and damp when using. There would have flaw over surfaces. The flawed area of soaps is different from one another. Even the weight of soaps has little bit discrepancies. It is not easy to make it in transparent colour. Even if it is transparent, large amount of alcohol solvent is needed to add into soap. Generally, natural handmade soap is in creamy white or creamy yellow colour.
Because it is manufactured by cold processed (room temperature), the nutrient of vegetable oil is not damaged and kept in soap. When we use this type of natural handmade soap for washing, our skin is nourished and kept healthy.
Handmade soap made by soap base:
This type of soap is more like art form. Modeling is so beautiful and colourful, even with transparent texture (needs to add alcohol solvent and transparent agent in the process in order to make it transparent). Flowers can be put into soap, and the colour of flowers can still be able to maintain. Finishing usually would add colourant / pigment, flavouring essence / perfume or essential oil. Soap is made by heating and melting soap base.
Alkali is not touched during the soap making process, so children may participate in it in company with adults.
I don’t recommend using this type of soap myself as the soap is not 100% natural. As for a handcraft or an art for decoration, it is acceptable.
Soap manufactured by factory:
The shape of soap is very neat and soap body is hard, even hard to dissolve in water. Label of ingredients may mark not include soap base or soap is in weak acid.
A manufactured soap generally, for profit, uses cheap and low cost of animal oil / fat or high cost of vegetable oil (such as coconut oil), then mass produced by machine. Preservatives are added during the process and then adding salt to separate out soap (from which the most precious glycerin is extracted for resale). Next, adding flavouring power / essence, paraffin and other additives to make it dry out as soon as possible; more modern method nowadays uses solidified agent to make synthetic surface-active agent becomes block form. This type of soap is powerful to wash grease / oil off, thus it makes skin so dry and chapped. Moreover, chemical composition contains in it may block skin pores, lead to skin allergy and pathological changes. This is the type of soap which dermatologist suggests patient not to use. It does not merely affect our skin. There is a new research saying that chemical composition can be absorbed through skin and go into our body organs and damage them.
油脂 + 氫氧化鈉 + 水 = 皂 + 甘油 (簡單來說就是有甘油的皂)。不過，市面上有很多不同種類的香皂出售，有一些宣稱是"手工製"，究竟怎樣定義呢?
我想差不多每一個在第一次使用純天然手工香皂的人都能夠感受到它的手感和洗感是完完全全與市售商業的香皂 / 清潔劑 / 去垢劑不同，包括我在內。我已經使用純天然手工香皂一段時間了，我很高興看見自己皮膚大大的好轉及改善，皮膚問題不再是我時常擾人的煩惱。我希望那些仍然受皮膚問題困擾的人能閱讀下面的文章並理解為何純天然手工香皂是那麼與別不同!
純天然手工香皂：
愈天然的純皂愈不好製作，採用人工操作，少量製造，因此產量有限而成本也遠遠高於一般市售肥皂。手工皂不太香、會變色、有點軟，使用期間表面經常是溼潤狀態。表面會有瑕疵，瑕疵位置都不太一樣，重量也會有一些誤差。不容易做出透明質感，如果做成透明也必須加入許多的酒精溶劑，因此手工皂正常來講是呈現乳白色至乳黃色。
因為是採用冷製(室溫)製作，所以植物油的養份能夠不被破壞並可以保留在皂內，我們使用它的時候，皮膚也能吸收養份及保持健康。
皂基製作的肥皂：
藝術型態的手工香皂，造型漂亮五顏六色，甚至具有透明質感(製造過程需要添加酒精溶劑及透明化劑才能使之透明)，可包含花草而能夠保存花草原來的顏色，成品通常會加入色料、香精或精油，這些是使用皂基加熱融化製作的皂。
因為過程中不會接觸到強鹼，小朋友在大人的陪同下也可以參與其中。
因為這種香皂不是百分百純天然，我本人不建議使用這類香皂，而作為一件手工藝或裝飾的藝術是可以接受的。
工廠製造的肥皂：
肥皂形狀工整、非常的硬，遇水也很難溶。成份標示，有寫不含皂鹼或者肥皂呈現弱酸性。
一般香皂的製造，為了利潤，使用成本低廉的動物性油脂，或成本稍高的植物性油脂 (如椰子油)，以機器大量生產，過程中添加防腐劑然後加鹽把肥皂析出 (其中最寶貴的甘油成分抽出另行轉售)，再加香粉、石蠟和其它添加物，快速進行乾燥；現在較新的作法是使用凝固劑將合成的界面活性劑結成塊狀。這類的香皂脫脂力太強，往往造成皮膚乾裂，且含有的化學成分會對皮膚產生毛細孔阻塞、過敏或病變。皮膚科醫師說不要使用肥皂是指這一類的肥皂。這不僅只針對皮膚， 有最新的硏究指這些化學成分會經由皮膚吸收進入人體影響身體器官的病變。
